The Indian Cultural Forum interviewed Sandeep Pandey about his book, his expulsion, the agenda of the RSS and the BJP and their interest in saffronising educational institutions and more. 

Daniya Rahman: What happened to you in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has been happening across campuses ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014. Can you comment on these continuous attacks on education and educational institutions? 

Sandeep Pandey: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is trying to control academic institutions stifling out any other voice. By controlling young minds they want to dominate the narrative in the society and hope to maintain a long term hold on it.

DR: There is a trend of labelling every dissenting voice as “anti-national” and / or “naxalite”. Why do you think that is? What according you does nationalism stand for?

SP: It is easy to discredit anybody or question anybody’s credibility by labelling somebody an anti-national or a naxalite. The idea of nationalism is like that of caste and religion, which is used to divide people. It is artificial. We have to be careful about it. I can be a good human being without believing in caste, religion or nation. It is important to be a humanist or a universalist. And that is sufficient.

DR: You have openly held the RSS responsible for your expulsion. Have you received threats from them or faced any hurdles in releasing the book?

SP: Not now, but when I was leaving BHU, two people associated with the RSS tried to dictate what I should have and should not have taught to the students one evening at the guest house where I used to stay. I confronted them. There is a continuous attempt to make false accusations against me by people associated with the RSS. On 6 February, 2019 after my book went public, there was an article in The Guardian by one Arvind Kumar of University of Chicago, where he calls me a naxalite, even though the Allahabad High Court absolved me of all false charges by giving the judgement in my favour.

DR: Why do you think your book is relevant, given the current political climate?

SP: BJP and RSS are trying to confuse the people by repeatedly raising the issue of nationalism. This approach has two problems. Firstly, it creates strife between neighbours and within minority communities or people who believe in different ideologies. Secondly, the real issues of people like poverty, unemployment, agrarian crisis, corruption, the human rights of marginalised, are brushed under the carpet. My attempt is to make people realise that RSS and BJP are dangerous for our society and people should reject their politics.

DR: Would you like to say something to the readers about why the 2019 General elections are so crucial?

SP: The 2019 Lok Sabha elections will determine whether democracy will survive in this country or not. Already, the Narendra Modi led government has eroded credibility of a number of our institutions and reduced the budget of all essential sectors like education, health care, agriculture.  The Constitution of India is under threat. People have to use this election to save democracy, the Constitution and bring back pro-people politics, which has been derailed.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

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Image Courtesy: The Pioneer

The decision has reignited the regressive religious campaign led by the RSS-BJP legion, and for them, Sabarimala has become no less than a battleground. Consequently, the region has been witnessing a series of violent protests ever since the judgement was passed. In light of the violence caused by these protests, Section 144 of The Code of Criminal Procedure was imposed in Sabarimala and nearby areas ahead of the Chithira Avittom Pooja. The protestors, however, decided to go ahead with the agitation despite Kerala High Court’s order that no protests or demonstrations should be held at Sabarimala, holding that it was not a place for such activities.

In the month of November alone, around 69 people were arrested for allegedly breaching Section 144 imposed in the vicinity of Sabarimala. The protests, however, continue to intensify as the Kerala unit of BJP started an indefinite relay hunger strike before the Kerala secretariat on December 03, to press demands such as the lifting of prohibitory orders against protesters and withdrawal of cases against party leaders.

In tune with BJP, the Congress-led UDF is also blaming the LDF government for not handling the situation appropriately. “Centuries-old practices and rituals that are followed at Sabarimala temple must be protected. The Devaswom board has failed in its duty to carry out its functions correctly and the state government is in a rush to implement measures without considering the option of bringing an ordinance. The duty of the Devaswom Board is to protect the interests and well-being of the devotees, not that of Pinarayi Vijayan,” said the UDF leader Ramesh Chennithala.

Not giving in to the pressure of protests, the LDF government is firm on its decision that the government is duty-bound to implement the Supreme Court order. “I will not allow the Sangh Parivar to make Sabarimala into another Ayodhya. There is a concerted bid to defame the state citing Sabarimala,” said Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The Kerala government has also announced a million women wall on the New Year’s Day to prevent the state from “sliding back into medieval madness”. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that a women wall would be formed on January 01 from the Northern district of Kasargode to the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram in order to garner support for the state government. The CM said that the decision was made after a meeting with various Hindu organisations. “This is against the attempts to destroy the renaissance values and to spread awareness to people. The various communities are joining hands to make a big intervention that the country should make note of, and understand that Kerala society cannot be sent back to the old dark ages by anyone; we will not allow that,” he said.

Among the 190 Hindu organisations invited for the meeting, 176 had accepted and a few, including the Nair Service Society did not turn up.

Speaking to the Indian Cultural Forum on the issue, activist and academic Meera Velayadhun said, “In Kerala, notions of equality emerged from the missionary era itself. Gender equality was a key part of social reform, anti-caste, nationalist and communist movements and women’s struggles played a distinct role in them. It was the wide participation of women in these varied movements in Kerala that expanded democratic dialogues and widened democratisation. However, all gains of the past are now under attack and for the first time in modern Kerala’s history, a violent, anti-women struggle has been launched by communal forces and organisations opposing the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala. The violence unleashed by these communal organisations also includes a section of women, who propagated their own exclusion as “tradition”. At the time when a political template is sought to be built on the basis of mob violence and anti-women communal agenda, democratic dialogues are difficult.”

The announcement of a women wall at this time, Velayadhun said, can act as a peaceful form of protest against the violent attacks on women. “It is time for women from all sections of society to hold wide discussions among themselves, oppose the newer forms of patriarchal ideologies that threaten the constitutional rights of women and more significantly, come together so that these rights are part of the on-going political debates,” she concluded.

Ramesh Chennithala, leader of the opposition party UDF, has come out against this announcement. “The government order is another blunder like the salary challenge. The order is applicable to not just the government, semi-government and public sector undertakings, but also to members of ASHA, Kudumbashree, Anganwadi, and MGNREGS. Its tone makes participation compulsory,” he said.

There are also reports doing round that the sangh parivar is getting ready to form another women’s wall to counter the LDF-led women’s wall.

Daniya Rahman is a member of the editorial collective of the Indian Writers’ Forum.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum
 

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Image Courtesy: The News Minute

On November 17, when people gathered at the Garden of Five Senses in Saket, it was not just for their love of music, but also in solidarity with a particular kind of politics. The evening was special and the performance important because T M Krishna was performing in Delhi three days after the Airports Authority of India (AAI) “postponed” an event featuring the Karnatic singer, owing to a backlash from right-wing trolls who called Krishna an “anti-national” “Urban Naxal”.

The threats could not budge T M Krishna who made a public announcement asking for a stage, anywhere in Delhi on November 17, for him to come and sing. Responding to his appeal, Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, stepped in and invited Krishna to perform. “No artist should ever be denied an opportunity to perform. I have invited T M Krishna to perform on November 17 for the people of Delhi. It’s important to maintain the dignity of the art and artists”, Sisodia said.

Politics and art, thus shared the same stage at the Delhi government’s event, “Awam ki Awaz”. Krishna said before commencing his performance, “The spirit of the day has transformed over the few days and keeping with the spirit, I will try and see if we can see multiple voices, languages, traditions, religion in the concert. I will not speak much.” And while Krishna refused to talk about politics, his music spoke for him.

He struck a mesmerising chord against the on-going cultural barbarism that the country is subjected to. Starting with an all-denominational prayer that Mahatma Gandhi had instituted at the Sabarmati Ashram, Krishna’s performance included a Malayalam rendition in praise of Jesus Christ, an adaptation of Nagoor Hanifa’s Islamic Tamil song, Kabir, Tukaram, Basava, Perumal Murugan and much more.

Around the same time when AAI decided to postpone Krishna’s performance, the organisers of another event hosting T M Krishna also received threat calls. Krishna is scheduled to hold a concert and music workshop on “Rare Krithis of Sri Muthuswamy Dikshithar” on 22–23 November at Gana Bharathi in Mysuru’s Kuvempunagar area. The organisers, however, as per a report in ThePrint, are planning to go ahead with the event. “There is no need to bow down to the pressure by some random elements”, Himanshu C R, one of the organisers said.
In the times when expressing a dissenting opinion mean threats, vandalising venues and cancellation of events, Krishna’s performance was loud enough to reverberate a rhythm of resistance.

Daniya Rahman is a member of the editorial collective of the Indian Writers’ Forum.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

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On June 19, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) announced its decision to pull out of the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, breaking its alliance with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Currently the state is in the hands of Governor NN Vohra. This is the fourth time in the last ten years that the state is under the governor’s rule.
 

Image Courtesy: Al Jazeera

A unilateral ceasefire was declared by the Indian government on 14 May where the security forces were asked not to launch new operations during the month of Ramadan. While PDP was of the opinion that the ceasefire should be extended and the Centre should reach out to the separatists, BJP argued that the separatists have lost that opportunity and announced that the Ramadan ceasefire would not be extended and anti-terror operations would resume in the state.

On Sunday, after the Centre decided not to extend the Suspension of Operations (SoO) or cease operations in Jammu and Kashmir, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, in a series of tweets announced that the security forces have been directed to resume operations. “The Security Forces are being directed to take all necessary actions as earlier to prevent terrorists from launching attacks and indulging in violence and killings”, he said. In another tweet, he said, “It was expected that everyone will cooperate in ensuring the success of this initiative. While the Security Forces have displayed exemplary restraint during this period, the terrorists have continued with their attacks, on civilians and SFs, resulting in deaths and injuries.”
 

The government’s announcement that the security forces have been given a “free hand” to conduct operations against terrorists did not go down too well with everyone. The army itself could not escape this conflict of opinions and in what looked like a twitter war, many army officials came forward with their respective opinions on the Governor’s rule and the “free hand” that it gives them.

On June 18, Major Gaurav Arya said, “Kashmir is heading towards an irreversible slide into chaos. If we wish to arrest this slide, the Mehbooba Mufti government must go. It is costing us soldiers. Impose President’s rule immediately. It is time to take a hard line.” Soon after it was announced that BJP has pulled out of alliance with PDP, Major Arya tweeted again and said, “Good move. Next step…need a strong person as Governor of J&K…someone who has seen the valley up close…who knows it like the back of his hand…who has operated there. should have trust of army and locals both. Such a man exists. Need him in Raj Bhawan.”
 

Objecting to Major Arya’s views, Major Priyadarshi Chowdhury replied, “How/why is it a good move? Since when has a failure to honour people’s mandate and collapse of governance at the altar of power/electoral politics become good? J&K should not be viewed as a CZ. There are real people there with real aspirations which elected governments have to fulfil.” He also said, “The State & the Central government have to fulfil their responsibilities. Armed Forces are not the answer to all the ills that we experience as a Nation State. They are a much abused arm of the State thanks to the ineptness of many of the other arms of the State.”
 

Supporting Major Chowdhury, Colonel Sanjay Pande also responded and said, “It’s so comfortable to hype Army painting a picture that all was miserable and ‘now’ we can give Army a free hand. With one stroke the political parties wash their hands off. Army always had free hand. Why don’t politicians try ‘free hand’ out?”
 

 
The last two years have seen an escalation in army action, and to suggest— as had been implied by the BJP— that their alliance with PDP did not allow the army a free hand is not borne out by facts. Militancy had declined from the peak of 20,000 militants in 1990s to a few hundred by 2012-2013. Over hundred militants have been killed in the past two years itself. This should have led to de-militarisation in Jammu and Kashmir, but it didn’t because the decline in the number of militants does not mean that people have given up on “azaadi”. At the same time, this also implies that the army always had a free hand. As civil rights activist and Kashmiri human rights lawyer Parvez Imroz also said, “Government has always given free-hand to the army and the same will happen again. There is not even a single FIR filed against the army. The difference is that the operations may intensify now. And if the situation aggravates, there will be a backlash also.”
 

 
The backlash is already evident with multiple operations being carried out by the Army every day since the ceasefire ended. But as Brigadier V Mahalingam said, “There are limitations to what an Army can and cannot do. The army is not in the valley to end insurgency but merely to keep violence at an acceptable level. It is for the politicians & the Administration to take forward the political process so as to end the problem.”

Given the situation of the Valley, it becomes important to ask the question that senior journalist and author Rajdeep Sardesai raised, “Every senior army/intelligence officer I have spoken to in last 24 hours tells me not once have their hands been tied when it comes to J and K since 1991; every government has given a free hand to the forces to ‘eliminate’ terrorists. So what really is Op ‘All Out’ 2.0 but optics [with one eye on the 2019 elections]?”

Daniya Rahman is a member of the editorial collective of the Indian Writers’ Forum.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

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